TAMPA – With 1:03 to play in overtime and a faceoff just outside the Rangers’ blue line, Tom Renney sent defensive-minded Blair Betts and Fredrik Sjostrom onto the ice as his forward unit, a clear signal that the head coach was playing to get into the shootout.

You would too, if you had the nearly impenetrable Henrik Lundqvist on your side.

And on this night, Lundqvist was perfect in the penalty skills competition, stopping both shots he faced while Markus Naslund – who got both goals in regulation – and Nikolai Zherdev each converted on their chances to give the Rangers a 3-2 victory over the Lightning after Mark Recchi tied the score on a double-deflection goal at 19:10 of the third period.

The Blueshirts dominated the overtime then they dominated the one-on-one, extending their shootout record to 5-1, with Lundqvist 4-1 in stopping 13 of the 14 tries he’s faced. If you haven’t noticed, The King takes the shootout rather personally.

“We’re pretty confident in shootouts with our goaltender,” said Naslund. “We had talked about trying to get some momentum here and putting a string of wins together, so it’s nice that we stuck with it.”

The shootout record goes a long way in explaining the Rangers’ rather inexplicable overall record of 16-7-2. Honestly, this was another night on which the Blueshirts were more impressive on the scoreboard than on the ice and yet, there they were, leaving the ice with a victory, and here they are, leading the Eastern Conference.

“We played hard, stayed intense and stayed poised,” said Renney.

That’s as good as explanation as any, for despite being pounded physically much of the night by a Lightning club that had been challenged to take the body by interim head coach Rick Tocchet, and despite generating a mere handful of scoring opportunities, the Rangers not only put themselves in position to win, they won.

They won by playing a simple and methodical game and by remaining committed to their structure. The Blueshirts were solid in their own end of the ice, led on this night by Michal Rozsival, who well may have had his most solid game of the season.

The Rangers were out-hit 26-11 according to the official score sheet, an accurate reflection of the Lightning’s aggression. The Blueshirts did respond, and they did engage when challenged, witness Zherdev dropping the gloves with Steven Stamkos in the first fight of No. 13’s five-year NHL career and Colton Orr jumping Evgeni Artyukhin after the big winger railroaded Betts into the real wall.

Beyond the fight, Zherdev had a typical game, invisible on too many shifts but talented enough to make the difference. The Rangers had a rather typical night, too, playing just well enough to register a victory by limiting the opposition to two goals or fewer for the 19th time.

And unless there’s a significant move in the offing, it appears as if this is the way it’s going to be with a lineup that features a pair of fourth lines – take your pick between Betts-Sjostrom-Orr and Aaron Voros-Lauri Korpikoski-Dan Fritsche – but somehow can’t accommodate either Nigel Dawes or Petr Prucha.

But when there’s The King available for the shootout, it apparently doesn’t make much difference. At least not yet it hasn’t.